TORONTO — It is fun, the notion of the National Hockey League¹s leaders sneaking around Manhattan in hats and sunglasses, ducking into the shadows while the media roars by with the lights flashing.

The latest meeting between the league and its player union took place in New York Tuesday in an undisclosed location, just as the meetings Saturday between deputies Bill Daly and Steve Fehr did. It is a measure of where they are, and how these things end, that this was seen as significant progress.

But it was, at least in theory. The fact that the time for grandstanding had passed — at least temporarily — was progress. The fact that the two sides talked and then decided they had something more to talk about in greater numbers — at least temporarily — was progress.

None of this, of course, means the lockout is ending anytime soon. Even tangible progress at the bargaining table can be derailed after the fact, even if Tuesday¹s meeting, which started at 3 p.m., was still going well into the evening.

But this tends to be how these things end; not an afternoon at the theatre, but a negotiation. Last year¹s National Basketball Association¹s lockout ended a few days after their own secret meeting, away from the microphones.

This thing could still have several paroxysms of rancour left in it, but when it ends, the quiet comes before the noise.

This was the first meeting involving Don Fehr and Gary Bettman since Oct. 18, when Fehr offered three different proposals and Bettman walked out after 10 minutes. But the issues remained the same: money primarily, and then contract issues that the league is almost certainly more willing to bargain away. And whether it is quiet or not, the same problems will need to be overcome.

Progress will require saner voices. It will require compromise, fuelled by the urgency to salvage as much of a season as they can. It will require the players working off the league’s way of calculating 50-50, by percentage of hockey-related revenue, rather than offering concessions by sacrificing a share of future revenues, which protects their take-home pay right now.

Progress will require saner voices.

Similarly, to make a deal before the end of November — to make a deal without going to the mattress — the league will have to make concrete moves to protect some or all of that take-home.

It is not a Gretzky-given right that existing contracts need to be honoured — the escrow made sure of that in the last CBA — but players will need to feel as though it is being honoured. Their slew of offers the last time made clear that these sides can get to 50-50 by the end of this CBA, which means that this is at least theoretically concessionary bargaining.

After their last proposals, the two sides were approximately $500m-to-$650m US apart over the life of a five-year deal; that is between $3.3m and $4.3m per team per season, or one very good second-liner. With zero growth the NHL could generate $16.5 billion in five full seasons. This gap is minuscule, given what is at stake.

Of course, even after the money is settled, they will need to agree on the contract issues — free agency, arbitration, entry-level contracts, the architecture through which the money flows. But once the money is settled, there will be a season.

None of this means a deal is inevitable. In 2005, the two sides finally broke off negotiations in mid-February while $6.5 million apart on an annual salary cap per team, and they never got much closer before they cancelled the season. The good news is that for all the apocalyptic rumblings over the past two months, there are at least two months left before a partial season would be in jeopardy, and the gap is half what it was the last time.

The NBA — which along with the NFL employed the same law firm that the NHL is using, with lawyer Bob Batterman at the helm — did not settle until Nov. 26, and crammed in a 66-game season. And not even the most ardent LeBron James-hater is attaching an asterisk to it. Players were filing anti-trust suits 11 days before a settlement. This is how it works.

“I would not read into this optimism or pessimism,” NBA Commissioner David Stern told the media on Nov. 9. “We’re not failing. We’re not succeeding. We’re just there.”

This is the playbook, and nobody needs to start worrying about the season yet. They are just here.

And there is a deal to be made. Maybe it involves a cap on escrow, meaning a partial guarantee on what players would actually be paid, which would shift the NHLPA¹s offer of sacrificing a share of future growth back to the players. It probably requires a willingness by the NHL to eschew 50-50 this season, to ensure the savings from future years and the revenue from this season. And the NHL needs to get over its mistrust of Don Fehr, and Fehr needs to give them a reason to do so.

All we need is adults in the room who can do what other leagues did — reach across the table and meet somewhere in the middle.

If these two sides lose the season every one of them should be swept away, never to be seen in hockey again, because that much stupidity and pride and ego should not be trusted with this game.

It has come to this: If these two sides lose the season every one of them should be swept away, never to be seen in hockey again, because that much stupidity and pride and ego should not be trusted with this game. That is a bit of a naive statement, of course, given the list of stuffed pigeons and egomaniacs who have traditionally run hockey, which is a business above all else. No owner is going to lose his job over this.

But if they screw this up over the price of a second-liner in every pot, then they should all don disguises and duck into the shadows. If, of course, they were capable of shame.

After graduating from the University of British Columbia, Bruce Arthur joined the Post in 2001 as a sports reporter. After covering the Toronto Raptors, he became the paper's basketball columnist in 2005... read more, its Toronto columnist in 2007, and its national columnist in 2008. His work currently appears across the Postmedia chain three times a week. Arthur was born in Vancouver, is married, and lives in Toronto.View author's profile